2. Defects of spherical nematic
Homin Shin, Mark J. Bowick, and Xiangjun Xing, Physics Department, Syracuse University
We have studied the organization of topological defects of nematic order on a sphere. We found that the system exhibits four +1/2 disclinations arrayed on a great circle rather than at the vertices of a regular tetrahedron. This arises from the high elastic anisotropy of the system in which splay is far softer than bending. We map out the preferred defect locations as a function of elastic anisotropy. We establish the existence of a one-parameter family of degenerate ground states in the extreme splay-dominated limit. Our work shows how to control the global defect geometry of spherical nematic by tuning relevant elastic moduli.